Cigarette Smoke
by KurtColfer
Summary: Kurt wasn't sure exactly when it was he snapped. Whether it was when he became best friends with Quinn, when he started smoking, or when he dyed his hair pink. He had become one of 'The Skanks', and the only person who could have the chance to get the real Kurt back was a new boy who had a thing for bow ties and putting a little too much gel in his hair.
1. Chapter 1:New Directions, New Beginnings

Kurt wasn't sure exactly when it was he snapped. Whether it was when he became best friends with Quinn, when he started smoking, or when he dyed his hair pink. All he knew was that when he returned to school for his senior year he was one of 'The Skanks'. It was odd, really, how the year before he was Kurt Hummel, the kind, polite, fashionable and studious, gay kid, but now he was Kurt Kummel – Skank. He had just walked through the school doors on the first day back, lit cigarette in hand and pink hair coiffed back into a scary kind of perfection and the label became his, walking down the corridor he looked at everyone's reactions. They were all the same. Shocked.

"Kurt." A familiar voice piped up from somewhere behind him. He swivelled on the heels of his black, studded, boots.

"What?" he snapped, as he took in Rachel Berry's tiny frame in front of him. She was dressed in a reindeer sweater, a plaid skirt, knee-high socks and a large red headband.

"Kurt, I know we were never that close but… Towards the end of last year I thought you were one of my best friends, I mean, we broke into the Gershwin Theatre together, got breakfast at Tiffany's… You don't just do that kind of thing with anyone, you know?" she stuttered her way through her words, but kept constant eye contact with Kurt.

"People grow apart. Deal with it." A second voice spoke up, causing both Kurt and Rachel to jump.

Quinn Fabray stepped forward, wearing a crop top, short shorts and with a jacket tied around her waist. Her hair was ruffled and scruffy, and she had a pink dye job that was just as bad as Kurt's.

"Quinn, the same goes for you…" Rachel began, her eyes fluttering between the two people in front of her.

"You stole my boyfriend, and now you're trying to be best buddies with me, who do you think you are, Berry?" Quinn snapped as she took a drag from Kurt's cigarette.

"I didn't mean to steal Finn from you, Quinn…"

"But then you call yourself Kurt's best friend, where were you the day after we got back from New York, Rachel? When Kurt's life turned to shit? Oh, that's right, you were too busy sticking your tongue down his brother's throat to care!" Quinn grabbed Kurt's arm and turned them both around, ready to walk away, when Rachel spoke up again.

"I'm sorry, Kurt, but becoming a Skank isn't going to help anything."

Kurt stopped in his tracks, and without even turning to look at Rachel said "Oh, yeah, because who I was before stopped me from getting into trouble. Piss of, dwarf."

Sheila, Ronnie and Mackenzie were stood under the bleachers when Kurt and Quinn found them. No formalities, such as saying hello, were necessary. Instead Sheila just held out her lighter for Kurt and Quinn to push their cigarettes through.

"So I think I'm gonna go see Mr Henderson at break." Mackenzie announced, as she leaned against the back of the bleachers.

"Y'know, I don't think you should carry that on this year, Mack." Ronnie spoke, after breathing out the smoke that had accumulated in the bottom of her lungs. "You'll get him fired."

"That's the plan." Mack said, in a tone which made it seem like it was meant to be obvious.

"So you're getting the 40 year old history teacher to sleep with you between classes, to get him fired?" Sheila asked, throwing her lighter on the floor after realising it was out of fluid.

"He gave me an F in sophomore year, this is my fun version of revenge." Mackenzie smirked.

"Classy." Kurt mumbled.

Mackenzie turned to glare at Kurt, but ended up smirking. "I like this one." She barely whispered, as she took a long drag from her cigarette.

Blaine Anderson did not get nervous. He just didn't. He was confident, somewhat sophisticated, intelligent, polite and just a generally nice guy. So, when he opened the doors of William McKinley High School for his very first time he didn't understand why he could feel his heart in his throat (he even made a mental note to call his doctor) or why his hands were shaking, or why his forehead was drenched in sweat.

He looked around the corridor as he shut the door behind him, it looked like an average school, there were rows of lockers stretched as far as the eye could see, classroom doors scattered all over the place. He could even see a sign that was pointing in the direction of the cafeteria. It was as he noticed this sign that he was broken out of his trance by a short girl running into him with tears streaming down her face.

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry." She whimpered, wiping away her tears and trying to control her breathing.

"Oh. Hey, no, that's okay. I am kinda blocking the door." He tried to smile, but it seemed wrong to be smiling when the girl was obviously so upset. "I know I'm a complete stranger, but would you maybe like to talk? Sometimes it's good to let your feelings out and, hey, I'm a stranger so I've got to be impartial."

"Okay, that… that would be nice." She tried to summon a smile, which Blaine quickly returned.

"I'm Blaine, by the way. Blaine Anderson." He introduced himself, offering a hand for her to shake.

"Rachel Berry." She took his offered hand, and wow, did she have a tough grip.

"We just got so close, we never got along before but then suddenly there he was. He was like soulmate in a friendship kind of way, we liked the same musicals, the same songs, same celebrities. We were like one of the same, which is kind of why we clashed but is also why he was the perfect best friend… Then something happened to him, something really awful. Not even two days after we'd sang on a Broadway stage together…" Rachel rambled, her tears finally under control.

"What happened?" Blaine asked, they were sat in a choir room. Blaine offered his car for a little more privacy, but Rachel insisted that this was the safest place for her to be other than her own home.

"That's it, I don't even know. I should have known though. I was meant to be taking him for coffee after school, but I was with Finn in here and we lost track of time. I was half an hour late, I ran out to the parking lot as soon as I realised, but he wasn't there…" Rachel's breath hitched. "There was police tape up near where my car was parked and there was blood on the floor, a lot of it. I knew it was his, because Kurt was the kind of person who would wait. Sure, he'd make a sassy remark about it and act pissed off, but he wouldn't leave me unless he had reason to. I didn't call him though, not because I didn't care but because I didn't want it to be true. I learnt that it was his blood from Finn, but he refused to tell me what had happened. Then a few weeks later he was back on Facebook again, but he ignored all of my messages. Instead, he was posting status updates and taking selfies with Quinn – that's Finn's ex that I mentioned – all of the time, he changed his profile picture to one of him smoking and then a couple weeks later all of his pictures showed him with bright pink hair, and I knew I had lost him. Just before I ran into you I tried talking to him, but he told me to piss off and I – "She broke down into tears again. "I'm such a bad friend, I should have been there for him. I shouldn't have been late, I should have called, but no. I practically wrote him out my life until he was better after whatever happened, but by then it was too late for us to be friends. You know, I can deal with falling out with someone, I can. It sucks an hurts, but it's just like a softer version of a break up, what I can't deal with is knowing that part of what's made him turn into this different person is because of me."

Blaine fished a tissue from his pocket and carefully dabbed at her eyes.

"Rachel, none of this is your fault. I know that it is hard for me to say that without knowing what actually happened to him, but if it was really that bad then it was whatever happened that has caused him to turn. You just need to keep your mind off him, it's his loss." Blaine smiled at her as she stopped her tears once again.

"You know, you're right. I just want my Kurt back."

It was then that the school bell rang.

Blaine's first class was AP English Literature. Luckily for him the classroom was just across the hall from the choir room and Rachel was able to point him in the right direction with ease. He took a seat right at the back of the class and waited for the lesson to begin.

Soon enough, the rest of the class began piling in and every seat was filled but the one next to Blaine, and he didn't know whether to be offended or relieved by this.

"Alright, class, settle down!" The teacher projected her voice over the students'. "Now, I know you're all excited to discuss your summer vacation, but let's at least save that until next period when I'm not teaching you, okay? So, for those of you who don't know I am Miss Parker, and I will be teaching you – "

The door slammed against the wall, as it hit the wall harshly.

"Kurt!" Miss Parker almost squealed. "You look… Different?" She looked the boy up and down.

Kurt only grunted in response, he scanned the room until his eyes fell on the only empty seat next to Blaine. He rolled his eyes and dragged his feet across the room.

"Right, well… Where was I?" Miss Parker started again after the interruption.

Blaine looked at Kurt, took in his pink hair and the scent of cigarette smoke that clung to his clothes. _So, this is Kurt_ he thinks, and he almost has to bite his lip because Kurt is _gorgeous_. His hair, although tacky in appearance, was perfectly styled and his eyes, although broken in appearance were a fascinating shade of clear blue, and his lips… well, his lips were moving. He snapped himself back into reality, just to hear Kurt hiss.

"…So, quit staring at me!"

"Oh, I'm… I'm sorry. I didn't mean to, I was just… erm… daydreaming…?" Blaine whispered, not able to find the right words.

"Daydream in a different direction then." Kurt spat before rooting for a pen in his bag.

"…So, you will work in groups of 5 for your presentations. This work will all be out of class, but it will be substituting homework. We will be having presentation lessons once every three or four weeks, depending on how long it takes us to finish each book in the syllabus." Miss Parker was saying. "I already have your groups written out, to avoid you all choosing your friends. "So, in group one there is Gemma Lewis, Ryan Howe, Matt Rutherford, Mike Chang and Hannah Wright. In group two we have Blaine Anderson, Santana Lopez, Mercedes Jones, Tina Cohen-Chang and Kurt Hummel. Group three…"

Blaine turned to look at Kurt, who seemed oddly tense by the news, and smiled. He knew who Kurt really was, underneath the leather jacket, the dye and cigarette smoke, and he couldn't wait to actually meet him.


	2. Chapter 2: Bad Influences

**Author's Note: **

_Hi everyone!  
Sorry for the delay with this update, I would like to just say thank you for all of your kind words and support for this fic so far, it honestly means the world!  
The reason behind why this took so long to update is because this is my fifth attempt of writing it, as every other time my laptop crashed (believe it or not), because of that this isn't quite up to scratch but I didn't feel like I could just leave the fic any longer lest I forget about it completely.  
I hope you enjoy it anyway, and even if you don't, hope you still stick around to see how the story develops as I have lots of ideas!_

_Also, if you get the chance check out my youtube channel! So far I have uploaded a fanmade season 1 trailer and an alternative version of Don't Cry For Me Argentina, so if you get the chance please tell me what you think! channel/UCL6scMHk3z7DIXwxpC_fnpw  
Thank you!_

* * *

The boy never did stop daydreaming in Kurt's direction, and it annoyed him to no end. The rest of his group decided to meet at Mercedes' house after school every Wednesday, without Kurt's contribution.

The minute the bell rang, Kurt hopped up from his seat and made it his mission to be the first to leave the room. Despite his rush from the room, he also made it his mission to be the last to arrive for his next period. Maths.

What he didn't expect, as he entered the classroom 10 minutes late, was to be sat next to that boy _again._

"Long time, no see." The boy giggled to himself as he jotted down the equation on the whiteboard.

"You're hilarious." Kurt retorted.

"Some find me charming."

"I find you annoying."

"I'm Blaine."

"I don't care."

"We're meant to be working in silence!" Mr Smith glared at the two boys from his desk.

Kurt made his way through the equation in record time, and felt a sense of satisfaction as he noted the rest of the class was still hard at work.

The lesson went by fairly quickly for Kurt, he kept his head down and ignored the looks Blaine directed at him. He was not about to fall for his so-called _charm_.

* * *

Kurt was difficult, but Blaine found it endearing. He got home that night thinking of what had gone down between Kurt and Rachel, trying to fit all of the pieces together. All he knew was that Kurt was somehow hurt, and Rachel blamed it on herself. He didn't know why he was so content on figuring it all out, he barely knew either of them. It was really none of his business.

But, still, as he collapsed onto the sofa in his lounge that night, all he could think of was that Kurt didn't used to be so difficult. He was a different person, apparently, so whatever happened to him it must have been bad.

"Blaine, honey!" his mom called from the kitchen, interrupting his train of thought.

"What?" he yelled back, not bothering to move.

"I just spoke to your dad on the phone, he said your car is ready to pick up from the garage a couple of blocks away." She explained. This instantly caught his attention and he almost jumped straight up from the couch.

He entered the kitchen, beaming. "Is it really ready?"

"Aha." His mom smiled, looking completely empathetic for him.

"But… I don't have the money."

"Your dad paid on the spot when he took it in to get fixed up, all you have to do is show up and drive it back home. The owner has the keys."

"Oh my God," Blaine almost jumped up and down on the spot, but instead just ran towards the front door shouting "see you later!" to his mom as he left the house.

The walk to the garage was easy, it was 4 blocks away from his own house, but with all the excitement bubbling up inside of him it felt like he'd only been walking 5 seconds before he was stood outside of 'Hummel's Tires and Lube'.

He took a deep breath and entered through one of the open garage doors, to see a burly looking man wearing a checked shirt and a baseball cap.

"Hey, how can I help you?" he asked, his voice deep.

"I'm here to pick up my car." He grinned at the words, _his _car.

"You the Anderson boy?" the man asked, laughing at Blaine's obvious excitement.

"Yes, sir!"

"Dad, I need some money." A third voice came from deeper in the garage, Blaine knew that voice.

"I'm dealing with a customer right now, Kurt." The man replied, but Blaine barely heard him. _Kurt_. Kurt was here, without meaning to Blaine started fixing up his clothes and running a hand over the top of his gel covered hair.

"I'll be gone in a minute, I just need – "Kurt walked out from the office in the back of the garage. "_You._" He spat with conviction, upon noticing Kurt.

Blaine only smiled meekly.

"Are you stalking me or something?" Kurt ordered, the man's eyes flicked between the two boys.

"Do you know my son?" The man asked, trying to sound polite, but protective.

"I just joined McKinley today. We had a few classes together." Blaine tried to explain.

"Try every class, and in every one of them I was sat next to or on the same table as him." Kurt folded his arms in disgust.

"It's not my fault, you were late to them all and no one wants to sit with the new kid so you had to…" Blaine tried to defend himself, but didn't hide the hurt in his eyes.

"Late to class?" Burt looked at Kurt sternly, and then back to Blaine, he dug a set of keys out of his pocket and passed them to him. "If anything is still funny with your car, give me a call. Your dad filled out all the paperwork so you're good to go, kid."

* * *

"Late to _every _class, Kurt?!" Burt Hummel screamed at his son after dinner that night.

"Only by a few minutes." Kurt mumbled.

"Well, if that kid managed to get to them all on time so should you! What's your excuse for that one?!" Burt was pacing across the living room, as Kurt sat on the disgustingly green sofa, staring at his shoes.

The minute that Blaine had mentioned him being late Kurt knew he was in trouble, he had managed to hide so much from his dad about his changed personality and he wasn't planning on him catching on anytime soon, but he had come to realise he was out of luck. Too much had changed to go completely unnoticed.

He looked around the poorly decorated room, with the dirt brown carpet and off-white wallpaper looking as out of place in the room as he felt.

"This is because of what happened isn't it?" Burt rubbed at his eyes, and adjusted his baseball cap on his head as he spoke. "It has affected you, I should have known as soon as you dyed your hair. As soon as you left Mercedes, Tina and Rachel for _that_ _girl_."

"_That girl_, is my best friend. She is the only friend that was there for me, don't you remember?" Kurt snapped, and began chewing on his bottom lip.

"She's a bad influence on you, Kurt!" Burt pointed his finger right into his sons face. "Just because of what happened doesn't mean you have to start acting tough."

"I'm not acting tough because of what happened, it wasn't even that bad!"

"Wasn't even that bad?" Burt almost laughed. "Do I need to remind you that you were comatose for _two_ weeks, Kurt?"

"Well, I don't remember anything. I don't remember the pain, or even what happened."

"Yes you do, I hear you screaming in your sleep, Kurt! You remember it." Burt's eyes were tearing up, but Kurt just looked sullen and annoyed. "And even if you don't, you sure as Hell remember the fact you that they were just about to bag you up in the morgue when you did wake up! We thought you were dead, they couldn't get a pulse or anything out of you, you were so close to it! So, of course you're acting out because you're scared… We understand that Kurt, we do, but they're gone now. The bad guys are gone."

"Bad guys?" Kurt scoffed, and jumped to his feet. "I'm not 6 anymore, I'm not stupid, so stop acting so patronising towards me! No matter where I am, dad, there will be people who will hate me and who I am – I will _never_ escape it! Never! So, if I feel like dying my hair, wearing leather and smoking will scare them away. So be it."

"You smoke?" Burt's jaw dropped, and Kurt laughed at the disappointment and hurt on his father's face.

"Sometimes I forget if it was you or me who got shot, because you sure act like it's all about you. Like it was you who someone tried to _fucking_ murder. And even though you act like it's you whose life is in danger, you don't seem to get what I have to do to protect myself."

And with that Kurt stormed up to his room, leaving his father in a state of shock.


End file.
